From evil and fear to marriage and enlightenment. One color and both sides of the coin.
The black color is called kuro (黒 ● くろ) and its kanji is a combination of the radicals: field 田, soil 土, and fishtail (can be remembered as a “black-tailed fish in a soil field”).
The black color is traditionally linked to:
- Death, destruction, sorrow, doom, fear, evil.
- Power and toughness (think about the black belt in martial arts).
- Enlightenment (black caps are worn by Shinto priests).
- Masculine color used in men’s wedding dresses and worn by boys during the kodomo-no-hi (こどもの日 – day of children) festival.
But 黒 is more than that: let’s discover all the meanings together!
黒 and tattoos (spoiler: not only Yakuza).
The oldest use of 黒 goes back to tattooing practices called irezumi (入れ墨) that literally means “insert black ink”. During ancient times fishermen (and sometimes people in general) used to be tattooed with big birds and fishes to protect themselves from evil. Some fishermen still use tattoos today!
The bad reputation of tattoos was born during the Nara period (710-784) when criminals were tattoed as punishment. Since then this “mark as criminal” is used mainly by members of the Yakuza.
黒 traditional color ranking and Samurai.
In the twelve-level traditional rank system of colors, purple is in the highest position, and black lays at the bottom. This didn’t stop samurais from choosing shiny black lacquered armors because of their beautiful reflects!
黒 and art.
Black and all its shades are fundamental in Japanese art. Both for calligraphy and sumi e (墨絵 ● すみえ) that means “black ink painting”.
黒 from Meiji period (1868 – 1912): western influence.
Because of the Western influence, when used alone, today black (kuro ● 黒 ● くろ) is the color primarily associated with mourning and misfortune. At the same time, Western exported the idea of black-tie events, and black has become a clot of formality.
Some expressions including 黒:
- Shirokuro saseru (白黒させる ● しろくろさせる) means “to get clarity”.
- Me o shirokuro saseru (目 を 白黒 させる●めをしろくろ させる) is literally “make it black and white” but really means “to roll eyes in fright or surprise”.
- Shirokuro o tsukeru (白黒 を つける●しろくろをつける) is translatable as “to draw a line between black and white” and means “to clarify the difference between right and wrong, good and bad”.
- Kurojin (黒人 ●くろじん) indicates a black person. In some way, black people are silently discriminated in Japan: today this term has become a word for abuse so pay attention when you want to use it!
- Haraguroi (腹黒い ● はらぐろい) literally means “black belly” but the real meaning is “ill-intentioned” or “evilhearted”.
- As in many other languages, is told that evil people have a black heart. There are many ways to express this concept: one of them is kuroi kokoro (黒い心 ●くろいこころ) where “kokoro” isn’t intended as the organ but the impalpable/spiritual concept.
- Kuro is used for “black” and something similar to “dark”. For example kurozatou (黒砂糖 ●くろざとう) indicate dark brown sugar.
Do you know any additional facts related to kuro ● 黒? Please, share with us in the come
